Calling Women Prostitutes Is the Hot New Political Trend

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Technically it’s not really a trend until it happens three times, so consider this a preemptive trend declaration, but it seems as if the go-to insult for political or geopolitical spats these days is increasingly becoming “You’re a prostitute.” Take, for instance, the disagreement between French First Lady Carla Bruni and the Iranian authorities who want to execute Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian woman accused of cheating on and murdering her husband. After Bruni joined many celebrities across the world in calling for Ashtiani’s release, an Iranian newspaper run by the government responded by labeling her a prostitute in aneditorial.

This comes only a few days after one of the most poorly thought out tweets by a politician in recent memory. Up in Alaska on Friday, Sarah Palin–backed Senate candidate Joe Miller had this to say about his Republican rival Lisa Murkowsi, who, it’s been rumored, could run on the Libertarian ballot line if she loses her close race to Miller for the GOPnomination:

What’s the difference between selling out your party’s values and the oldest profession?

To be fair, a valid interpretation is that Miller was calling the Libertarian Party a prostitute here, not Murkowski. If so, Murkowski would become a john in this analogy, which is still not a very nice thing to say to a 53-year-old lady, and, even more condemnable, would seriously weaken our entire pre-trendtheory.